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Register Now: PrivacyCamp May 7th in San Francisco

EFF will be attending PrivacyCamp SF on Friday May 7th after the end of the Web 2.0 Expo, and we hope you will join us. The topic of the day will be Privacy and Social Networks.

This first annual PrivacyCamp in San Francisco will be a day-long user-generated "unconference" of engineers, privacy advocates, professors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and social network users that will focus on the privacy implications of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Buzz. If you will be in the Bay Area and want to engage in smart conversation with experts in tech and policy about what social networks mean for privacy and to brainstorm about how social networks can be designed to better protect privacy, register now.

What is an unconference? Well, there's no pre-planned agenda, no keynotes, no panels, and no “Q&As,” just a space to meet, discuss, debate, and share knowledge with others who are interested in a particular topic--in this case, Privacy and Social Networks. We at EFF certainly have a lot to say on that topic, and we hope you'll join us to help define the dialogue. Helping us with that will be Craig Newmark of Craigslist, who's planning to speak with conference participants before lunch, and we hope to see representatives from other Web 2.0 companies participating in the discussion as well.

Since there's no pre-planned agenda, the topics of discussion will be collaboratively defined the morning of the conference (for example, here's the agenda that was settled on for the DC PrivacyCamp, which focused on privacy and government policy). But to give you an idea of possible topics for discussion, here are a few initial ideas and questions suggested by the PrivacyCamp blog:

Privacy by Design: Where in the design process should privacy be addressed? How far have we come and in what direction are we heading? What are the biggest obstacles to designing a private network, and what are some ways to overcome them?

All Out in the Open: How can privacy exist on a public network? In an age that seemingly embraces oversharing, are privacy controls a futile exercise? What are users’ expectations and how can they be addressed?

The Money Question: Does privacy work against the very tenets of social networking monetization? Can networks emphasize privacy and still be profitable? Is it possible to compete on privacy?

Too Much Control: Are granular controls the answer to privacy? How detailed can controls get before they become too complicated? How sophisticated is the “average user” and how can sites encourage users to educate themselves about the full functionality of privacy controls?

Update Headaches: What works when you change your site’s privacy controls? What doesn’t?

What would you like to see discussed at PrivacyCamp SF? Register now to get in on the conversation. You can also participate in or follow the discussion on Twitter via @privacycampdc and hashtags #privacycamp and #privacy2010, on the PrivacyCamp Facebook page, and on the PrivacyCamp blog.